Aziz-ul-Rahman Usmani (also written as Azizur Rahman Usmani) (died 1928) was an Indian Sunni Muslim scholar who served as first Grand Mufti of

Darul Uloom Deoband The Darul Uloom Deoband is an Islamic seminary (darul uloom) in India at which the Sunni Deobandi Islamic movement began. It is located in Deoband, a town in Saharanpur district, Uttar Pradesh. The seminary was established by Muhammad Qasim ...

. He is best known for his ''Fatawa Darul Uloom Deoband''. His brother was

Shabbir Ahmad Usmani Shabbir Ahmad Usmani (11 October 188713 December 1949) was an Islamic scholar who supported the Pakistan Movement in the 1940s. He was a religious scholar, writer, orator, politician, and expert in Tafsir and Hadith. Born in 1887 in Bijnor, U ...

Biography

Aziz-ul-Rahman Usmani was born in 1275 AH into the

Usmani family of Deoband The Usmani family of Deoband are the descendants of the third Rashidun Caliph, Uthman, based primarily in the town of Deoband in India. The notable people of this family include Fazlur Rahman Usmani, Mahmud Hasan Deobandi, Azizur Rahman Usmani an ...

. He graduated from the

in 1295 AH. His teachers included

Muhammad Qasim Nanautawi Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi (1832 – 15 April 1880) () was an Indian Sunni Hanafi Maturidi Islamic Scholar, theologian and a Sufi who was one of the main founders of the Deobandi Movement, starting from the Darul Uloom Deoband. Name and ...

Mahmud Hasan Deobandi Mahmud Hasan Deobandi (also known as Shaykh al-Hind; 1851–1920) was an Indian Muslim scholar and an activist of the Indian independence movement, who co-founded the Jamia Millia Islamia university and launched the Silk Letter Movement for t ...

and

Muhammad Yaqub Nanautawi Muhammad Yaqub Nanautawi (1833–1884) was an Indian Islamic scholar, and one of the earliest teachers of Islamic Madrassa in Deoband, famously called Darul Uloom Deoband in India. He was the first principal of Darul Uloom Deoband. Name and li ...

. He was an authorized disciple of Muhammad Rafi-ud-Din in

Sufism Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, r ...

. Usmani was appointed the Grand Mufti of the Darul Ifta of

after its inception and he headed it until 1927 after which he moved to Dabhel. His juristic rulings were compiled in twelve volumes by Zafeeruddin Miftahi and were published between 1962 and 1972 as ''Fatawa Darul Uloom Deoband''.

Muhammad Shafi Deobandi Muḥammad Shafī‘ ibn Muḥammad Yāsīn ‘Us̱mānī Deobandī ( ur, ; ar, محمد شفيع بن محمد ياسين العثماني الديوبندي, ''Muḥammad Shafī‘ ibn Muḥammad Yāsīn al-‘Uthmānī ad-Diyūbandī''; ...

also compiled selected fatawa of Usmani and published them as ''Aziz al-Fatawa''. According to

Syed Mehboob Rizwi Syed Mehboob Rizwi (1911–1979) was an Indian Sunni Islamic scholar, author and historian, best known for ''Tarikh Darul Uloom Deoband'', his two volume Urdu work on the history of Darul Uloom Deoband. Biography Syed Mehboob Rizwi was born in ...

, Usmani issued 37,561 fatawa between 1330 and 1346 AH. Usmani resigned from Darul Uloom Deoband along with

Anwar Shah Kashmiri Anwar Shah Kashmiri (known with honorifics as ''Sayyid Muḥammad Anwar Shāh ibn Mu‘aẓẓam Shāh al-Kashmīrī''; 16 November 1875 – 28 May 1933) was a Kashmiri Muslim scholar and jurist who served as the first principal of Madrasa Ami ...

in 1927 and moved to

Jamia Islamia Talimuddin Jamiah Islamiah Talimuddin Dabhel (or Dabhel Jamiah Islamiah or Jamiah Islamiah Dabhel) is a Deobandi Islamic seminary in Dabhel, Gujarat, India. Education pattern The Jamiah has the following departments: * Nazirah-e-Qur'an (reading the Qur' ...

(Dabhel) and taught ''

Sahih al-Bukhari Sahih al-Bukhari ( ar, صحيح البخاري, translit=Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī), group=note is a ''hadith'' collection and a book of '' sunnah'' compiled by the Persian scholar Muḥammad ibn Ismā‘īl al-Bukhārī (810–870) around 846. Al ...

'' there. In Dabhel, his health deteriorated and he returned to Deoband, where he died in 1928. His funeral prayer was led by Sayyid Asghar Hussain Deobandi and he was buried in the Qasmi cemetery of Darul Uloom. Usmani issued verdicts with the title of

Grand Mufti of India The Grand Mufti of India is the most senior and influential religious authority of the Barelvi Muslim Community of India. The incumbent is Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad, general secretary of All India Sunni Jamiyyathul Ulama, who was conferred the ti ...

, along with the title of Grand Mufti of Darul Uloom Deoband.

References

Bibliography

* * {{Usmani family Darul Uloom Deoband alumni Hanafi fiqh scholars Deobandis Grand Muftis of India 1928 deaths Darul Uloom Deoband faculty Students of Mahmud Hasan Deobandi Usmani family Jamia Islamia Talimuddin faculty Burials at Mazar-e-Qasmi